During spring the woods, roadsides and even residential yards are scattered with various species of violets. Most are so recognizable that you would think they would be easy to identify down to the species level but they are not. Even scientists cannot agree on how many species there are worldwide. Plus some species cross pollinate with one another producing hybrids that add to taxonomic confusion.

All this is to say that in the world of violets all is not as simple as it seems. There are two types of showy blooms one that is on stems and the others are stemless. Note the photo of a stemmed violet with yellow blooms. Also violets leaf shapes vary which you would think would aid identification. But when a leaf description says slightly blunted or oval or not quite rounded you can get lost. 

All parts of violets are edible. Blooms are added to salads, candied for taste and garnishes. The violet leaves are high in Vitamin C and Vitamin A.

I think the best thing to do with violets is to relax and simply enjoy them, discover as many varieties that you can find and reflect on the romantic prose and poetry that they have inspired:

Violets

And there of a sudden are violets,
wild spread to the ground in all places,
bright purple soft sparkling, spring’s mantle.

Joan Howard, Hiawassee Georgia

Roses are red,
violets are blue,
I love chocolate
more than you.

Anonymous

Violets, violets
You’re the fairest
flower to me …

Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity song

Dr. Bob Gilbert’s articles are being reprinted with the permission of the Franklin Press in Franklin, North Carolina.

The pick this month is a favorite for most gardeners of edible plants.  That first early tomato is the envy of neighbors and a sure sign summer is here to stay awhile.

Before we head to the history, growing techniques and botanical information, let’s take a stab at putting the fruit vs. vegetable argument to rest.  Botanically, the tomato is a fruit; to be precise it is a berry.  The definition for berry is a fleshy fruit where the walls of a single ovary ripen around the seeds.  For you gardeners that insist this plant is a vegetable, guess what – the government is on your side.  In 1893, the Supreme Court sided with a lower court in the precedent: Nix vs. Hedden, and declared the tomato, a vegetable for the purpose of customs categorization in international trade.  My vote: it’s a very incredible berry…

History and Botanical

How many people know the tomato is originally from South America? It grows there as an herbaceous perennial!  Here in the US we use it as a summer annual.  Tomatoes were brought back to the Old World after Cortez invaded the New World.  He sent tomatoes back to Spain where they spread to Italy and across the continent.  Can you image Italian food without tomato sauce!  I don’t want to ever think of pizza, lasagna, or spaghetti without the tomato as an important ingredient.

The plant botanical name is Solanum lycopersicum which makes tomatoes related to other some other veggies found in most gardens with at least one being socially unacceptable.  Potatoes and eggplants are edible relatives and they all are part of the nightshade family.  That is why green potatoes and the foliage of tomatoes are poisonous.  The toxicity of this family is attributed to an alkaloid called glycoalkaloids and there is NO safe dosage.  As little as one milligram of this poison can be lethal to some people.  Now, for that unacceptable member: tobacco is part of the same family.  It can be a carrier of the tobacco mosaic virus.  Transmission of this virus can occur when a smoker touches tomato plants.  This virus is almost always fatal and is one reason why we do not allow smoking anywhere at the Gardens.

Planting and Care

Ok – let’s get those tomatoes in the ground.  Now that the 15^th of April has come and gone, we are well past the last frost date set by the USDA.  I like to plant my tomatoes using a posthole digger.  After the hole is dug, I mix the starter fertilizer and lime (for calcium to help prevent blossom end rot) into the excavated soil.  Then I pinch off the lower leaves and branches until only the top few remain.  At that point, I take a small piece of aluminum foil or card- board from a paper towel tube and wrap it lightly around the top part of the stem.  The reason I use this technique it to prevent a nasty creature – the cut-worm from chewing through the stem and falling my freshly planted tomato like a lumber jack drops a tree.  Back fill the soil, making sure the wrap is half above and half below the soil.  Firm up the soil and water.  Put down some mulch to help with water retention, insulation and disease control.  Install your choice of support apparatus, whether it is a fence, cage or string.  Keeping the vine off the ground helps prevent rot, disease and saves space.  Plus the fruit is cleaner when picked.  Water your plants regularly to help prevent cracking caused by uneven amounts of soil moisture.

One exception to the ‘plant deep’ rule; are the new grafted tomatoes.  They should not be planted any deeper than the graft.  Otherwise, the rootstock of the grafted plant may put up undesirable growth that will compete with the more desirable grafted top.

As always, come by and let’s talk tomato!

Yellow-rumped Warbler

By Pat Pepper

In my first column for this newsletter, I talked about being a little down because all the lovely fall migrant warblers had passed through Georgia on their way to Mexico and Central and South America. Now here it is, 5 mos. later, and they’re back! Shakespeare may have thought April was the cruelest month, but here in Georgia, for birders, it is the sweetest period.

Every day new species of warblers arrive. These intrepid little birds must fly at night to escape larger predators, and they must travel over the Gulf of Mexico without stopping. Arriving on our southern shores, they are very tired and very hungry. Warblers mainly eat insects, seeds, & fruit.

Many of you take great comfort in the cyclic phenomena of nature. Smith-Gilbert is a great testament to those cycles; the roses, irises, azaleas, et al are in their glory assuring us they are not dead. Every day right now I look out at my own feeders to see who has returned to visit me. Some will only stay a few days, taking on more body fat in order to continue their journeys north; others will stay here in Georgia all summer.

The pecan tree behind the Hiram Butler House, and the pecan in front of the carriage house had the most yellow-rumps. Warblers will not stay still for you to get a good view of them. You have to catch them eating an insect in order to look at them properly. They are the HD kids of the bird world. They also like to feed at the very tops of trees, so watching warblers will give you an unpleasant condition birders call “warbler neck.”

I did see some, however, in a small bush to the right of the carriage house pecan toward the back parking lot.

It is possible to see some of these birds in Georgia in the winter as they all don’t migrate further south. At 5.5 inches, the yellow rump is a rather large, long-tailed warbler. You will often see them in large flocks. On April 10 I was birding with four other birders on Kennesaw Mt. when just about every 3^rd bird we saw was a yellow-rump.

Most of our yellow-rumps will be moving north soon. They like to spend their summers mostly in Canada and Alaska. Usually by the end of the second week in May, most of the warblers we are seeing right now and will see in the next few weeks will be gone. Spring is the more exciting of the two seasonal migrations because the males are in their beautiful breeding plumage, and they are singing trying to attract mates.

This is the link to the yellow-rump’s song: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-rumpedWarbler/id

One of the most hopeful lines of poetry ever written in Western literature comes from “Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley: “O Wind, if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” Shelley understood the cyclic nature of our world and drew comfort from it. So should we.

Please note: Pat Pepper leads the “Bird Watching” class on the first Tuesday (5:30-7:30pm) and second Saturday (8-10am) of each month. Click here to register.

SGG Executive Director Doug Davis, Mayor Mark Matthews, Councilmen Tim Killingsworth & Bruce Jenkins cut the ribbon.

The day was sunny, the crowd gathered, the ribbon was cut, the rabbit was christened, plants were planted, music filled the air, artwork was displayed, bubbles floated by, bird houses were decorated, weavings were woven and fun was had by all! Stop by and check out all the new features in this interactive learning garden. Here’s a few of the special moments from the grand opening.

Partners in Education Ford Elementary School students provided music and art work.

Bubbles were a big hit with all ages.

Crowds painted Purple Martin houses to hang in the Garden.

SGG Head Gardener Shon Cameron demonstrated vertical planting.

Visitors tried their hand at weaving.

Our resident rabbit was christened with a new name picked from a number of submittals. The winning suggestion, “RINGO”, was sent to us by 11 year old Patrick Waters. Patrick won 4 Guest Passes to the Gardens. Congratulations Patrick! (and Ringo says “Thanks!”

Lungwort

By Shon Cameron, SGG Head Gardener

This month’s plant pick can easily make you think of the witches from Shakespeare’s – Macbeth.  With a common name like Lungwort most peoples reaction (including your truly) is UGH gross. Why would I want that in my yard – ever?

However, this plant is also known as Plumonaria (puhl-muohn-AIR-ee-uh). Pulmo in Latin it means the lung and the spots on the leaves were thought in sympathetic magic to represent diseases on the lung.  This belief encouraged people of Europe and Western Asia to use it as a medical herb to treat lung and breathing problems. 

Apart from the name, this plant should easily become one of your favorites because the different species are a food source for the larvae of the species Lepidoptera.  Hark – what is that you ask… the large family of butterflies (we love to see) and moths to include the case-bear (Coleophora Pumonarielle).

For those of us that claim plant geek’s status – the Genus Plumonaria is part of the Boraginaceae family.

There are 12 to 18 species of this shade to partial shade loving perennial.   The leaves range in shape from almost oval to spear tip. The flowers are blue to pink in color and even have some that are pure white inflorescence.

The shape of this dimunitive flower has five interconnected petals and multiple blooms on each terminal stem.  If the flowers are not dead headed they will produce an egg shaped brownish seed that is as big as 4.5 mm long and 3mm in width, unfortunately, there is no guarantee that planting the seed will produce another plant. The plants mainly spread by an underground slow growing rhizome with the help of adventitious roots.

If you want to add these beautiful plants to your landscape, keep in mind, they will need moist, well-drained soil, rich in humus (decomposed organic matter).  First morning light is best; however, direct light past eleven will be too intense for growing success in our area.  Being small in stature at 8-12 inches and 18 inches wide this plant is perfect as the front focal plant of any bed.  Keep in mind it will need plenty of room to spread.  Come see our blue variety here at the Garden and remember there are other colors to choose from for your garden.

Eastern Phoebe

By Pat Pepper

The bird of the month is the Eastern Phoebe (feebee). Before I tell you about this bird, I’d like to say a few words about how to identify birds because when I first saw this bird in the gardens on March 15th, I wrongly identified it. I left SGG thinking I would be writing about an Eastern Wood Pewee.

Eastern Wood Pewee

The bird was in the topmost branches of a tall tree just by the fence behind the beehives at the rear of the gardens. I knew it was a flycatcher because it was jumping from branch to branch catching insects. When calling, both these birds are easy to identify as they say their own names. This bird, however, was not calling.

A good birding friend of mine was just recently telling me about an expert bird guide’s advice on IDing birds. The expert said to gather all the markings and behaviors of the bird before pronouncing the species. I had failed to do this immediately.

What threw me off was this bird’s location and eating habits. Usually when I see Phoebes, they are perched near the end of a tree branch located in the middle of the tree or lower or on a fence post. The Phoebe will fly out, catch an insect and then return to the same spot. This bird was at the very top of the tree jumping from branch to branch. Pewees are more likely to be at the tops of trees. It was not until I returned home and checked my field guides that I concluded I was in error.

The behavior, according to my field guide, that changed my mind was that of tail flicking or wagging. The guide said that Phoebes usually flick their tails while perched whereas the Pewees do not. The bird I saw was definitely a tail flicker. In addition to this information was the time of year. While a Pewee can certainly be here now, summertime is its usual season. I had to conclude that I had seen an Eastern Phoebe.

The Eastern Phoebe is about 7” long and widespread in open woods and woodland edges. He is a solitary bird, meaning you won’t see him in a flock. Often you will find him sitting on top of a man-made structure, such as a fence post. I saw one at SGG last year sitting on the railing of the gazebo by the vegetable garden.

I bring all of this up to let you know that you must consider several factors when trying to ID birds, especially birds that have similar-looking species. There are about eleven different birds similar in markings to the Eastern Phoebe. To properly ID these birds, you need to get familiar with their vocalizations, foraging and motion behaviors, and what time of year they usually inhabit your area in addition to their body markings.

Identifying flycatchers is a more advanced skill, but when you are ready to move on from IDing blue jays, cardinals, and chickadees, give the flycatchers a try.

To learn more about Phoebes and Pewees and listen to their calls, click on these links:

Eastern Phoebe: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Phoebe/id/ac

Eastern Wood-Pewee: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Wood-Pewee/id/ac

Thanks to the BRIGHTSIDE and the MARIETTA DIALY JOURNAL for helping us promote the new classes, our cadre of trained Tour Docents is steadily growing. We added about 15 people to our already strong list from our September class and we have 16 signed up for our class beginning on February 15^th. This displays a strong interest in what we have to offer here at Smith-Gilbert. Our tour season is fast approaching and we are steadily booking groups to visit. We have already begun scheduling Docents to conduct the tours.

If after reading about our Volunteer program you think you might be interested in joining up with our group, call or e-mail Jim Parks at jparks@smithgilbertgardens.com or 770-919-0248.

Sandhill Crane

By Pat Pepper

During the month of February, you could be walking around the Gardens when all of a sudden you could hear a strange rattling cry coming from above. If you bother to look up, you might be witness to the glorious sight of perhaps hundreds of Sandhill Cranes migrating north. Because you will always hear them before you see them, here is a link to their calling: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/id/ac (just click on the Sound bar). If they are flying low, you will be able to see them with your naked eye. If you can hear them, but not see them, you will need binoculars.

Several SGG staff members told me that a flock flew over the Gardens on Feb. 15. Some people mistakenly think they are hearing geese, but the two sounds are quite different. Geese have a honking sound; the cranes rattle. There have been many Sandhill Crane sightings in the Atlanta area for the past two weeks. The cranes migrate in the daytime and choose a large field to eat and bed down in for the night, often a cattle field or any field that will have a grain source.

Whooping Crane

Adult Sandhills are about 46 in. long with a 77 in. wingspan. They are gray with a red crown. Their bustle of tail feathers will remind you of an ostrich

The Sandhills we are now seeing are on their way to Canada for the summer. While Feb. is the normal month to see these birds migrating north, many people are surprised because they just saw these birds migrating south to Florida in Dec. During the Audubon Christmas Count, I and my team counted about 230 Sandhills going South in the skies above Acworth and Kennesaw. Because of the mild fall up north, the cranes got a late start.

The Sandhills we see are part of the Atlantic Flyway, a migratory route. The Central Flyway has thousands more of these birds. As a result of their great numbers in the west, they are hunted in the month of Feb. I happened to be in Texas on a birding trip just a few days after hunting season ended. The Texans who eat Sandhills say they taste like beef. And they would know!

As long as a bird species can sufficiently repopulate itself after a hunting season, most birders don’t object to the killing. The problem with hunting Sandhills is that a related species of crane, the Whooping Crane, flys with the Sandhills. The Whooping Crane is an endangered species. It is larger than the Sandhill, 52 in. with an 87 in. wingspan, and is white with black wingtips. It also has a red crown.

While hunters may be well-intentioned to not shoot Whooping Cranes, poor lighting and distance can contribute to tragic mistakes. Many Eastern birders are keeping close attention to legislation in Tennessee that wants to permit Sandhill Crane hunting in the Atlantic Flyway.

Great Blue Heron

The Sandhill and the Whooping Crane are the only two cranes indigenous to North America. Some people confuse other large birds such as Great Blue Herons or Great Egrets with cranes. The Great Blue Heron (a very common bird all over the U.S.) is 46 in. long with a 72 in. wingspan. It is also gray, but has no red crown. The Great Egret is 39 in. long with a 51 in. wingspan. It is white, but has no black wingtips. Both the heron and the egret like to wade and eat fish. Cranes will nest around marshes, but like to eat grain in fields.

Great Egret

So, whether you’re at SGG or right in your own yard, keep your ears attuned to that distinctive Sandhill Crane rattle, and if you miss them now, look for them in the fall.

This month’s plant of choice heralds in spring.  We are so used to seeing it in a garden or landscape, we could easily forget how special the flower really is; let’s give a round of applause for the harbinger of spring, Narcissus commonly known as the Daffodil.

The Daffodil Society lists more than (1,600) sixteen-hundred cultivars in their data-base.  Smith-Gilbert has incorporated over 120 different varieties.  This hearty winter bulb is one of the first flowers to come up from the soil and greet the new growing season.  Around here, Daffodils start growing leaves and putting up flower stocks in the dead of winter, then patiently wait for weather to warm up to unfurl there brightly colored trumpet shaped flowers.  They come in shades of classic yellow to fancier colors ranging from pink to white and can have multiple ruffles and flowers.

One of the coolest things about this plant is that a small investment in a handful of bulbs will multiply over the years into a field of flowers, because these bulbs aturalize.

The care and up-keep of this plant is easy.  When the blooms fade, just pop them off and leave the foliage in place until it goes completely brown.  Then cut back the foliage to the ground.   Note that if you take the leaves off too early you will adversely affect your flower show for the next year.  Remember, you will need to divide groups that have formed into thick bunches, every third year.   When you split the plants expanding your Daffodil fortune, don’t forget to mix a couple of cups of bone meal into the soil.

This plant is also known as Narcissus, after the young Greek god, who supposedly fell in love with his own reflection while gazing into a pool of water and fell in or starved to death, depending on which story you read.  It is said, where he died, the flower of his namesake still blooms every spring.  An interesting addendum, if you have problems with critters in your garden, then add some of these bulbs.  Daffodils are related to the amaryllis family, which means, they are toxic when eaten, so rabbits and deer avoid them.

As always, if you would like more information about adding the multi-purpose Daffodil to your garden or landscape, look for me on your next visit to the Garden.

Ed Chrisman (left) aided by his loyal, pseudo-French assistant, Mike Sanders

By Doug Davis

Q.:  What do you get when you cross an acetylene torch and a happy man who is very reminiscent of Santa Claus?

A:  Ed Chrisman!

Background:  Ed, who played football with exceptional skill, found his calling in scrap metal decades ago.  No, not as a recycler, but as an artist. Anyone with a creative bent, however, will understand Mr. Chrisman’s predilection for seeing what others might regard as junk and storing same for some unknown future application.  Originally employed by Garden founders, Dr. Gilbert and Richard Smith, Chrisman has two significant works on display here on the grounds and is also our sculpture conservator.

Late last summer, a storm persuaded our specimen Robinia pseudocacia ‘Frisia’ Locust tree, which is planted just below the Rose Garden, to tilt.  Fearing further degrees of inclination, we commissioned Ed (in lieu of a chain saw) to provide a whimsical support.  Wearing a welding helmet somewhat reminiscent of Darth Vader and his cronies, and with sparks flying, he has added additional magic to SGG.  He promises to return to the Gardens periodically to add other members to this new piece as his creative and collecting abilities dictate.  Thus, we have another growing element that will implore the attention of our gardening eyes.

What’s next?  Bronzed pine needles, dewdrops of diamonds, solid gold honeybees, bonsai crafted from petrified wood?